Court Denies S&P’s Motion to Dismiss State of California’s $600M Suit

Orrick - Finance 20/20
Contact

On August 14, Judge Curtis E.A. Karnow of the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, denied Standard & Poor’s motion to dismiss a suit by the State of California. The Attorney General’s claims under the False Claim Acts and other statutes allege over $600 million in losses to investors, including state pension funds, due to S&P’s allegedly knowingly faulty ratings of RMBS. S&P argued that any injury to the state pension funds was not to “money” of the State, which it maintained is a requirement for a claim under the False Claim Act, and also that the suit was time-barred. The court denied the motion, concluding that S&P had not established that the lost money in the case did not constitute a potential or actual injury to the public treasury, and that the complaint sufficiently alleges discovery of the alleged wrongdoing within three years of the 2011 tolling agreement between the parties. Decision.

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

© Orrick - Finance 20/20 | Attorney Advertising

Written by:

Orrick - Finance 20/20
Contact
more
less

Orrick - Finance 20/20 on:

Reporters on Deadline

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
Custom Email Digest
- hide
- hide